She has killed the modern wordsmith Joe, the representation of young Hollywood, and resurrected her reputation, but in an ugly, negative way. Psycho," like "Sunset Boulevard," ends with an image of the character that has thoroughly unraveled. While the image of the young Joe Gillis opens "Sunset Boulevard," the image of the insane, older Norma closes the tale, and in "Psycho," the image of the sane Marion Crane opens the film, while the image of her murderer, Norman Bates, closes the film. Even more so than the domineering Norma, Norman Bates takes over the narrative of "Psycho," transforming it into what should have been Marion's tale of liberation and escape into a story of her murder. Likewise, what should have been a story of Joe's success in Hollywood instead becomes a story about Norma, even though Joe is a professional screenwriter.

The idea of 'rewriting' and 'retelling' reoccurs in all three films. "Singin' in the Rain" shows how the processes of writing and making films changed, and rewrites the conventional Hollywood formula of success -- now effete leading men show their true roots as song and dance men, Hollywood beauties must speak with their real voices, and careers are made and reborn. In contrast, "Sunset Boulevard" shows the fallout from the shift...

Finally, possession is most literally depicted in "Psycho" as Norman Bates is possessed by his mother, after he has possessed the narrative arc of the film, once controlled by Marion Crane as she fled in the futile hopes of a better life from her job as a bank clerk in a small town.
All three films have a kind of unified structure, beginning and ending with the same images. These repeated images reinforce the focus upon filmmaking, death, and possession in "Singin' in the Rain," "Sunset Boulevard," and "Psycho," respectively. But these images are repeated with a difference to show the displacement of the old Hollywood, the eradication of new dreams of filmmaking success, and a displacement of freedom and flight with incarceration. Repetition is not simply visually arresting, it also reflects the journey of the characters and the plot of the film.

Works Cited

Psycho." Directed by Alfred Hitchcock. 1960.

Singin' in the Rain." Directed by Stanley Donan and Gene Kelley. 1952.

Sunset Boulevard." Directed by Billy Wilder. 1950.